54

Today is my 54th birthday. As I do every year on this day (and hopefully will continue to do for a while longer) I give thanks to have made it through another year. There's no question that this pandemic that seemingly won't ever go away has once again affected my travel over the last year, although the two shots of vaccine I received before birthday number 53 and the two boosters after those first two has made getting out of town this year way less stressful. As far as we know, we've been untouched personally by COVID. We know we are more fortunate than others in that regard. I also appreciate the United States recently scrapping the testing requirement to come home from abroad recently.

Year 54 was a relatively busy travel year. I can count 10 trips that we've completed in the past 12 months. That's an incredible number. We hit Maine, Philadelphia, a mini-Midwest swing from Milwaukee to Chicago, Richmond, Portugal, the Hudson Valley, New Mexico, New York City, Southern California and a Memorial Day weekend visit to South Dakota and Nebraska. But most of those trips were four nights or fewer in duration and the three that exceed that number were for five, eight and eight nights. We went a lot of places, but we didn't stay long when we went. 

That got us a lot of coverage, but I lacked a wanderlust type trip this past year. The last amazing trip for me remains our October 2020 trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We have to change that soon. We have to get ourselves immersed in a completely incredible environment sometime this year. Maybe even more than once.

You might have noticed Portugal on my trip list over the last year. Yes, we made it out of the country, the first time I've done so since January of 2020 when we went to the Bahamas. It was great to dip a toe again into international travel and go back to Portugal for the first time in over 40 years (!!!). We actually had a second overseas trip in December planned to Vienna, Austria before the Omicron variant shut that city and its Christmas markets down for the season. Maybe this year...

We came across ex-muffler man Big Josh on our way out to Joshua Tree National Park.

So what did I love this year? So, so much. There were genuinely amazing days that I will hopefully remember for the rest of my life. Puffin watching in Maine. Exploring an icon of modern architecture near Chicago before hitting a blues club. Hanging out on a farm learning about how cork is harvested. Exploring Porto for too few hours. Spending a whole week just before Christmas in my spiritual homeland of New Mexico. Finally visiting Joshua Tree National Park. Rapid City, South Dakota. I get the last one is like a complete non sequitur but that place is seriously amazing.

It also seemed like we had a number of iconic food moments this past year. Maine lobster rolls. Pastéis and grilled sardines in Lisbon. Biscochitos in Albuquerque. Port in Porto (yes, Port counts as food here!). Sausages in Milwaukee. In-N-Out Burger. And a special shout out to the tuna crudo at Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland, ME; the shakshuka at Los Poblanos Inn in New Mexico; and everything we ordered at Rooster and the Pig in Palm Springs. Food is really important when we travel. We've been really, really lucky this year. If you are ever in Palm Springs, I would definitely encourage you to visit Rooster and the Pig. Just incredible food. 

Of course, I can't close my annual birthday post without a goals check for this five year period. As of a year ago, I had just two goals left before I turned 55: complete my quest to visit all 50 states and make it to Angkor Wat. I made progress this year, but admittedly not a whole lot. No trip to Cambodia yet but I did move my states visited total from 47 to 48 by spending a few hours in Nebraska. Just Kansas and Oklahoma to go there. The good news is they are next to each other. The bad news is I have no trip planned to either state. Or Cambodia for that matter. I'm down to my last year. 

So what does year 55 hold? Well I guess it better hold a trip to the American Midwest and to a certain ancient Hindu temple in southeast Asia or I'll have to admit some failure on my goals. Maybe I'll be forced to take the COVID mulligan. I'd rather not. Hopefully we can make it on our Austria trip that was cancelled last December and the cover picture of this post (where I'm usually holding a beer) might give some insight to another of our trips. Other than that? Just rolling with the travel restrictions as they are lifted and applied. We are no longer planning a year ahead of time at this point. Too much past disappointment. 

There's no doubt that there's a lot of uncertainty out there when it comes to where we can go. Hopefully this year comes closer to what we've experienced before 2020. Onward! I can't wait to see what this year brings. 

Found this polvo (octopus) on the side of a building in Porto.